Doughboys Pizza secures £90,000 investment on Dragons’ Den

Luke and Owen Buckmaster, co-founders of Italian frozen pizza brand Doughboys Pizza, gained the support of Peter Jones during last night’s (16 January) episode of Dragons’ Den.

The Buckmaster twins impressed all five Dragons – Deborah Meaden, Steven Bartlett, Touker Suleyman and Sara Davies as well as Jones – with the pitch for their artisan authentic Italian pizza business.

Bartlett described the company as “so investable” while Davies said its financial results, which reported £1m in turnover and £370,000 gross profit in its third year of trading, made for “good reading”.

Jones, Meaden and Davies competed for the deal, but the Buckmasters ultimately accepted Jones’ £90,000 investment for a 10% stake, which was double the original 5% equity offered.

Jones said: “I think I could really help you scale this business at speed actually, without the pitfalls, that happen when you scale the business at pace.”

Owen said during the show that Jones would add “a huge amount of value” to the business, as he is based in Maidenhead, close to the team in Reading.

Luke told The Caterer the brothers found the decision “really hard” as Meaden “really understood the foodservice side of the business”. However, he said they eventually chose Jones because Doughboys was already well established in hospitality and they wanted to take advantage of his stronger experience in the retail sector, where they see an opportunity for growth.

The equity deal is still being finalised between Doughboys Pizza and Jones’ team, but Luke expects it to complete in the next month or so. The Buckmasters have already been working closely with Jones’ team since the episode filmed on 3 June 2024 to work out how they can make the most of their appearance on the BBC show while reviewing their business plan.

“We will be sitting down with them and putting together a sales strategy and reviewing the business plan going forward as to where we need to focus on,” said Luke.

One moment in the episode that was left on the cutting room floor was Suleyman urging Doughboys to manufacture in the UK rather than importing their frozen pizza bases and ready-made pizzas from Italy.

The Buckmasters rejected this advice, with Luke telling The Caterer: “Our pizzas are genuinely handmade from the very beginning to the very end. So that is definitely our biggest USP and it’s not something that we that we would be able to lose, because that is what our business and products are built on.”

The twins founded Doughboys Pizza in 2020 but had to put it on pause for nearly 18 months due to the pandemic. After restarting the business in 2021, it has grown substantially with listings in Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham’s stadiums in London, NHS hospitals, Whistle Punks axe throwing bars and independent pubs. The group also became a core supplier for Bidfood last year.

Doughboys will use Jones’ investment to help grow the team and hire its first dedicated salesperson. The company’s sales forecasts for the past year proved to be accurate and it has achieved 97% of its projected £1.8m in revenue.

At the time of recording Dragons’ Den, the Buckmasters were the only permanent full time staff members, though they have been working with several freelancers and advisors including experienced foodservice supply chain executive Paul Knight as commercial director. The business currently has the equivalent of four full time employees, in customer support, financial and marketing functions.

Luke said: “We want Doughboys to be a recognised name and for people to associate it with high quality, authentic Italian pizza. Obviously it takes time to build up that that kind of brand credibility, but there’s such a massive opportunity within foodservice that we feel like we are very much on the cusp of growing rapidly within that.”